“Howard was one of the original visionaries of the city,” Mike Sedell, former Simi Valley city manager, told the Ventura County Star on Monday. “He worked very closely with a very well-organized team of people that saw a future for a community that felt it had been left out of a planning process from a distant government in Ventura.”

Before Simi Valley incorporated, the area was governed by the Ventura County Board of Supervisors.

Elected at the same time as voters approved cityhood, the first five City Council members laid down slow-growth rules and established a system to let residents review plans and make recommendations before developers were given the green light. The council also unraveled a sewer system that served only 30% to 40% of the city.

“On a nice, hot summer day, you could smell it, I’ll tell you,” Rogo told The Times in 1995, and chuckled. “And it didn’t smell like Chanel No. 5.”

After the Simi Valley department store he operated closed, he worked in tire distribution.